by Jonathan Williams

This year, Prevent Child Abuse Vermont (PCAVT) has been active at the Vermont State House in Montpelier for multiple reasons. The first relates to policy: PCAVT has put forward proposed fixes to a loophole stemming from an incident that occurred last summer. At the moment, the state does not require background checks for Agency of Education staff and contractors who are interacting with students in schools, whereas schools do require background checks for their own employees. After much lobbying and advocacy by PCAVT and the Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance, The House Education Committee added a fix to statute in their Miscellaneous Education Bill, which passed out of the House in late March. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

PCAVT is also featured in S.239, a bill that establishes a Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Group. The group, which as proposed includes PCAVT, is tasked with developing a report for the legislature "for the purpose of examining the existing statutes and DCF's rules and policies regarding mandatory reporting of abuse and neglect of a child and recommending changes to modernize them and reflect current best practices.” This is critical legislation, as the mandated reporting rules have not been updated in some time. S.239 was passed by the Senate and is now being considered by the House.

Prevent Child Abuse Vermont is also involved in the state budgeting process. Roughly half of PCAVT’s funding comes from state monies that are baked into the budget. This funding is “Base” funding, or funding that is assumed to be included in the budget year after year. PCAVT has relied on this funding for decades in order to offer essential services, including programming on abuse prevention. Governor Scott’s proposed budget for the upcoming Fiscal year cuts PCAVT’s base funding in half, approximately 1/5th of PCAVT’s revenues. This proposed cut would be devastating and would mean PCAVT would have to scale back its programs and services by 30-40%. Many fewer Vermonters—thousands of children and families—would no longer be able to access PCAVT programming. It is worth noting that PCAVT’s base funding was previously cut in 2020, and prior to that had not seen any increases in the entirety of its funding history.

Each year the Vermont legislature takes what is in the Governor’s proposed budget and reworks it, taking testimony from constituents, members of the public, and impacted organizations, businesses, and state agencies. PCAVT testified both in the House Human Services Committee (a “policy committee” which provides recommendations on sections of the budget concerning essential services to Vermonters) and the House Appropriations Committee (the “money committee” tasked with reworking the budget after receiving feedback from various policy committees). The House Human Services Committee, thankfully, understands the importance of prevention work and recommended that the proposed cuts to PCAVT’s funding not be enacted. The House Appropriations Committee concurred, and in their version of the budget, which passed out of the House of Representatives, restored the cuts, but as “one time” and not base funding. This means that after Fiscal Year 2027, which begins on July 1st of this year, the funding would go away, and PCAVT would be in the same challenging situation of figuring out how to continue to provide programming with the loss of 1/5th of its revenues. PCAVT would have to go back to the legislature and ask for this funding yet again next year.

Now that the budget has passed out of the House, the “Big Bill” moves to the Senate, where it is being considered by those legislators. PCAVT will advocate, with its allies and partners, that the funding be moved from one-time back to base, so that it is “baked” into the budget once more. This means talking to Senators, testifying in committee, and potentially activating supporters of the organization through concerted media campaigns, press releases, letters to the editor, and the like.

Vermont’s legislative session, as many have said, is a marathon and not a sprint. From January to May it takes much time, energy, and most critically, patience, to follow a bill from start to finish. In the case of Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, it also takes concerted energy and the attention of the organization’s staff and lobbyists, an investment of significant resources. All told it isn’t easy, but it is a process by which most anyone can provide input on critical issues, including how the state spends its tax dollars. Prevention work is, by anyone’s estimation, one of those most essential considerations.